Who we are:

The dance company, founded in 1987, is co-directed by Karl Schaffer and Erik Stern, and tours internationally. Our long-time collaborators have included Gregg Lizenbery, Scott Kim, and Chris Jones. Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County, and the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County.

Upcoming Winter and Spring, 2017

Sun., May 7 and Sun., May 14, Karl's concert "Choreocopia," a celebration of food, song, and dance, in collaboration with Zambra women's world music choral ensemble and master chef Jozseph Schultz premeires at the 418 Project in Santa Cruz, California.

Fall 2016

Dec. 12-13, Karl and Erik give two three-hour math dance workshops for teachers and accompanying demonstration classes in local schools for the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, the Paradise Valley Unified School District, and the Scottsdale Unified School District.

Nov. 17-18, Karl gives three-hour math dance teacher workshop and demonstration classes in four elementary schools for Johnson County Community College Performing Arts Series and Shawnee Mission School District in Shawnee Mission, Kansas.

Nov. 12, Erik writes and delivers narration to Weber State Univ. Orchestra Tribute to Broadway and performs a short tap sequence.

Oct. 7, Erik and Adam Johnson present "DanceScienceFest - A Body in Motion: A workshop based on a Dance Physics Higher Ed Project" at the National Dance Education Organization 2016 National Meeting in Arlington, Virginia.

Sep. 19, Erik and Daniel Jonas premiere "Sound Bites," a tap-trumpet duet which is also a reflection on the political sound bite in Jonas' faculty jazz concert at Weber State University Austad Auditorium.

Mon., June 20 to Wed., June 22, Erik, Rachel Bachman, and Saki teach three days of math and dance workshop activities to teachers at the Peace Center in Greenille, Souith Carolina.

Sat., Apr. 30, Karl Schaffer along with Maria Basile, Jane Real, Frankie Rivera, and Lila Salov perform several dances from Karl's concert Mosaic at the Friends of Sabeel conference at Peace United Church of Christ in Santa Cruz. FOSNA is a Christian ecumenical organization seeking justice and peace in the Holy Land through non-violence and education.

Winter 2016

Fri., Mar. 18, NBC Nightly News spent the day interviewing and filming Karl and Erik teaching a math dance activity to Kulani Kamahao's 5th grade class at Amesti School in Watsonville. Reporter Rehema Ellis and producer Jackeline Pou flew in from the east coast to create the story - though it has not aired.

Feb. 27, Erik and Rachel Bachman present movement workshop “Math Dance: A Study of Effectiveness” at Research Council on Mathematics Learning conference in Orlando, based on interdisciplinary general education course Pattern Play: Movement and Mathematics, which satisfies both the Weber State Univ. Quantitative Literacy and Creative Arts requirements.

Sun., Nov. 1, Celebration of Mind at Stanford University. Karl and Scott Kim, with assistance of Laurel Shastri, give a presentation on "Clapping Games" for this annual event celebrating the work and colleagues of Martin Gardner.

Oct. 22-24, Karl's concert The Daughters of Hypatia performs at the Alys Stephens Center for the Performing Arts in Birminghhma, Alabama, as part of their ArtPlay program. Saki, Lila Salhov, Jane Real, and Laurel Shastri give five performances of this concert celebrating women mathematicians throughout history, and Karl teaches workshops for teachers, Univ. of Ala. students, and a local school. A Celebration of Mind event with mathematical puzzles and games will be held in the theatre lobby prior to the Saturday 2 PM performance. Video highlights of Hypatia.

Oct. 15-16, Erik teaches math dance workshops for teachers and students in Santa Clarita, CA for for Kennedy Center Partners in Education affiliates Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center and several local school districts.

Sep. 9-11, Karl and Erik teach math dance workshops for teachers and students in Peoria, Arizona for Kennedy Center Partners in Education affiliates Arizona State Univ. Gammage, Mesa Public Schools, and Peoria Unified School District.

Sep. 2-4, Karl Schaffer teaches math dance workshops for teachers and students in Tyler, Texas for for Kennedy Center Partners in Education affiliates Young Audiences of Northeast Texas and the Tyler Independent School District.

June 30 - July 29, Karl spends a month at the Djerassi Resident Arts Program in Woodside, CA, as one of 12 artist/scientists selected from 240 applicants for the "Scientific Delirium Madness" project bringing the arts and sciences together. Laurel Shastri is also resident as dancer working with Karl. Karl, Saki, and Laurel perform at the annual Djerassi open house on Sunday, July 19. Erik and Karl did a month-long Djerassi residency in 1999.

Winter/Spring 2015

Thursday, April 30, 1:30 PM, Karl's concert The Daughters of Hypatia performs at the De Anza College Visual and Performing Arts Center, free admission. More info and background. Sponsored by De Anza College Women's History Events and DASB, Developmental and Readiness Education, Institute of Community and Civic Engagement, and Math Dept.

Fall 2014-Spring 2015, Erik Stern collaborates with Weber State University science education faculty Adam Johnston on Stern's year-long Moving Company outreach project "Dance Science Fest - A Body in Motion." Working with 13 students, Dance Science Fest rehearses all year to create a show which performs March 30, 31 and April 1 for thousands of Northern Utah 4-12 students in WSU's Browning Center.

Thu., Nov. 13, Karl and Erik teach workshops for students and teachers in Appleton, Wisconsin, sponsored by the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and the Appleton Area School District.Fri., Nov. 14, Karl teaches workshops for teachers in Rockford, Illinois, sponsored by the Rockford Area Arts Council and Rockford Public School District #205.

Oct. 30 and Dec. 4, 75 high school students from Salt Lake Center for Science Education join Moving Company at WSU for a movement based physics class.

Fri./Sat. Oct. 3/4, Karl gives talks on mathematics and dance and workshops on string polyhedra at the first MoSAIC festival at Berkeley City College. MoSAIC, Mathematics of Science, Art, Industry, Culture, is a series of regional festivals based on the Bridges Math and the Arts conferences. Here are video directions for the string polyhedra we made in the workshops, with other short related videos.

Fall 2014, Erik Stern - along with Julian Chan and Rachel Bachmann from the Mathematics Department at Weber State University - teaches "Pattern Play: Mathematics and the Creative Arts." Combining a contemporary mathematics course with an Honors Program course, this six credit class draws on Karl and Erik's longstanding work, and also introduces new activities. Assessment of the outcomes are being done and will be submitted to publications.

Summer 2014

Aug. 14-19, 2014, Erik, Karl, and Saki perform at Bridges Seoul 2014, an international conference on math and the arts. Performances given Saturday, Aug. 16 and Sunday Aug. 17 at the Gwacheon National Science Museum in Seoul, Korea.

Wed., June 4th: Mosaic: Dances of Peace, Justice, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East, choreographed and directed by Karl Schaffer, performs Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 at 1:30 PM at the Visual and Performing Arts Center at De Anza College, sponsored by the De Anza Institute for Community and Civic Engagement and the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education.More information,Facebook page,Flyer,Audience responses to Mosaic,
interviews about Mosaic in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the Good Times.

Summer and Fall 2013, Winter 2014:

Feb. 7/8, 2014 Showcase performances: Maria Basile performed Karl Schaffer's "The Mourning After" from Mosaic at the sjDanceco showcase Fri/Sat Feb. 7/8. Jane Real, Saki, and Lila Salhov performed "Trio for Six," part of the upcoming Daughters of Hypatia show, at the SpectorDance showcase Sat., Feb. 8: review. "Trio for Six" was originally choreographed by Karl, Scott Kim, and Barbara Susco.

Mosaic: Dances of Peace, Justice, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East, was performed Sunday, Dec. 1 at 10:30 AM in the PEACE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST (formerly the First Congregational Church in Santa Cruz). More information,Facebook page,Flyer

Dr. Schaffer and Mr. SternDance Ensemble performed and taught on the East Coast during September and October, 2013, see links below.

Karl Schaffer taught six different math and dance workshops at Create 2013, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, July 10 and 11, 2013, sponsored by the Tennessee Arts Commission, a math/dance workshop at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on July 24, 2013, and gave a paper at the Bridges Math and Art Conference in Eschede, Netherlands, July 27-31, 2013.

If you would like to be notified about new shows, please email us at karl_schaffer@yahoo.com, or join our Facebook group "Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern Dance Ensemble," and we will put you on a notification list. Thank you for your support!

Recent News:

Concert: Mosaic, Friday and Saturday, June 21 and 22, 2013, at 8 PM, at Motion Pacific in Santa Cruz, Karl Schaffer's dance concert on peace, justice, conflict, and culture, in Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East, including musical perfrmances by Zambra and Fattah Abbou.Detailed information on the show here....Articles on the concert in the Santa Cruz Sentinel and Good Times.

Puerto Rico. Both Erik and Karl taught many workshops for teachers, students and artists in Puerto Rico in April and August, 2009, as part of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. They found the children, teachers, and artists they worked with extremely excited by the math dance work in this follow-up trip to their 2005 residency. The residency was sponsored by the Instituto de Cultura Puertoriquenna.

Choreography for Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Erik choreographed a new work that premiered in RW's September 2009 concert "Equilibrium." "Unlikely Ritual" is a short fractured look at the strange self-designations men and women are asked to give themselves when filling out dating and compatibility forms.

Recent Bay Area work. Deanna Ross and Karl Schaffer performed the duet "The Atom Bomb Game," at Counterpulse in San Francisco on Sunday, Dec. 13, in Monterey Peninsula College's Fall Concert, Dec. 4th and 5th, 2009, and at SJDancCo's ChoreoProject Awards, Feb. 19 and 20, 2010.

Karl Schaffer produced a concert of mathematically playful new dance works, “Imaginary Numbers,” at the 418 Project in Santa Cruz, May 2009. The concert featured “Harmonious Equations,” a new work directed and narrated by National Public Radio’s “Math Guy” Keith Devlin, and based on music composed and performed by Santa Cruz choral group Zambra. Read More...